Korea is an ancient country, and as early as the Warring States period, there are records about Korea in our literature. The word North Korea appears sporadically in books such as the Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Guan Zi. Written in the "Records of History" during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, there is also a special "Biography of Joseon".
The founding of The Republic of Korea was a matter of the Ming Dynasty during the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang. In 1392, a Korean named Lee Sung-gyu led an army to overthrow the rule of the Goryeo Dynasty, established himself as king, and established Joseon. At that time, the Ming Dynasty was not long after its founding, and its national strength was strong, and in the eyes of the small state of Korea, it was a god-like existence. After Li Chenggui established power, he sent an envoy to Daming to meet Zhu Yuanzhang and ask zhu Yuanzhang to help determine the name of the country. Zhu Yuanzhang said that the word "Dprk" has the meaning of "asahi is distinct, which means better, so they used "Korea" as the name of the country. From the founding of the Country, Korea was full of reverence for the Ming Dynasty, and later for a long time as a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, called Chennagong.
In the late Ming Dynasty, social unrest and the control of the central government weakened. After the rise of HouJin, North Korea was seen as a thorn in the side of Houjin. Why? As can be seen from the map, Houjin happened to be sandwiched between the Ming Dynasty and Korea, and if the Ming Dynasty and The DPRK jointly marched, Houjin would face the dilemma of being attacked from the belly and back. Therefore, in Nurhaci's time, he was very wary of Korea, afraid that they would unite with the Ming Dynasty. In fact, on several occasions, the Ming Dynasty conquered Houjin, and the DPRK also sent troops to help suppress it, but with little success.
After Emperor Taiji succeeded to the throne, in order to completely eliminate the threat from Korea, he decided to conquer Korea by force and make this younger brother of the Ming Dynasty completely submit.
During the reign of Emperor Taiji, he used troops against Korea twice. The first time was the first year of Tiancong, and the second time was the first year of Chongde. Through these two armed conquests, Korea completely broke away from the Ming Dynasty and became a vassal state of the Qing Dynasty. Today, let's talk about these two armed conquests. I plan to devote two pages to this topic. Today's article, first talk about the use of troops in the first year of Tiancong.
In the first year of Tiancong, Emperor Taiji ascended to the Khan's throne with the support of Great Belle Daishan and others. Huang Taiji's talent was no less than that of his father Nurhaci; his ambition to expand was far beyond that of his father. Before he ascended the throne, he already saw the threat from North Korea. On the day of his ascension to the throne, after completing various ceremonies, Emperor Taiji made a high-profile announcement that he would attack North Korea. The reason for the conquest was that when Nurhaci died, North Korea did not send someone to mourn. This is just a matter of reason, the real purpose, is to use war to solve the thorn in the side of North Korea.
During this conquest, Emperor Taiji sent Amin, Zilharan, Azig and other Baylors, with Amin as the main commander, to lead a large army and go out on a mighty expedition. The Korean surrender general Kang Hong-ri and others served as guides for the Houjin army and led the way in front of the procession.
The expedition went very smoothly. The Later Jin army faced the weak Korean army and attacked the city at a very small cost. This war, North Korea called it "Ding Jiao's Chaos", also called "Ding Jiao's Aunt".
Amin led his army to attack Dingzhou, indulged the soldiers to slaughter the city, burned and looted, and killed countless people. Even if the property was robbed, the Later Jin also forced the Korean people in the occupied areas to shave their hair. Hou Jin's tyranny aroused strong indignation among the Koreans, and the court ministers also advised the king to resolutely resist.
The national strength of the country is placed there, and the back gold is hard, no doubt with the pebble hitting the stone and the mantis arm as a car.
Seeing that the Jin army was unstoppable, the King of Joseon hurriedly sent the princess, the crown prince, gold and silver, and others to Ganghwa Island, which was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and he himself followed the minister to Ganghwa Island for refuge. By the time the Houjin army arrived, the capital city of Seoul had already become an empty city.
At this time, North Korea sent people to ask for peace.
However, Amin hesitated. In his attitude toward North Korea, Amin is a resolute pro-war faction. The other Baylors advised him to sign a contract with North Korea quickly and then withdraw his troops. However, Amin had other plans. He did not plan to leave, and settled in Korea for a long time, living in the imperial palace in Seoul. He also asked Dudu to stay with him. This proposal was opposed by Dudu and all others. If Amin had insisted on staying in North Korea, the Korean Peninsula would probably not be what it is today. However, Amin was unable to resist the opposition from other Baylor and his generals, and reluctantly negotiated peace with North Korea.
Envoys from both sides shuttled back and forth between Ganghwa Island and Seoul. After many rounds of negotiations, the two sides compromised each other and finally reached an agreement. The agreement stipulates that Houjin and North Korea will not invade each other, and the DPRK will regularly pay tribute to Houjin, and treat Houjin envoys with the courtesy of ming envoys, and will not take in Houjin's fugitives, and will not build cities to train troops, etc. History is called "the alliance of Jiangdu".
Although North Korea has agreed to Amin's offer, Amin still does not resent it. When the troops withdrew, he ignored the strong opposition of Baylor and his soldiers and ordered his soldiers to rob the territory of Korea for three days. This brought ruin to the ordinary people of Korea, and the Jin army passed everywhere, and there were broken walls and corpses strewn across the field.
The Ming Dynasty has always been a strong backing for North Korea, so how did the Ming Dynasty react when Korea was invaded by the Later Jin?
In fact, soon after the Jin Dynasty entered the army, the Ming Dynasty side got the news. Kim Sang-hyun, a North Korean envoy in Beijing, immediately went to the table and asked the Ming Dynasty to help Korea break the siege. The Ming Dynasty soldier Shangshu Feng Jiahui played a song and asked the three thousand sailors of Juehua Island and the rest of the soldiers to bravely cooperate with Mao Wenlong to rescue Korea, and at the same time ordered Yuan Chonghuan, the governor of Liaodong, to take advantage of the opportunity of Houjin's attack on Korea to lead troops to Liaodong to besiege Wei and save Zhao. However, Yuan Chonghuan did not think so, did not agree to rescue North Korea, and delayed sending troops. At the emperor's repeated urging, he sent his generals to lead a large army eastward. But the march of the army is extremely slow, not to fight at all, but to go out to practice. In fact, Yuan Chonghuan is also pretending, and does not pay attention to rescue at all. The Ming army under Mao Wenlong's command was vulnerable in front of the Houjin army, and Yuan Chonghuan's side was slow to see action. Here the Ming dynasty army moved slowly, and Korea had already signed a pact with Houjin. This rescue by the Ming Dynasty was ridiculed by the Koreans as a "soldier on paper". This incompetent behavior of the Ming Dynasty also made North Korea feel cold, and it has since become inseparable from the Ming Dynasty.
This conquest of Houjin had a profound impact on the stability and development of Houjin, and this victory broke the alliance between Korea and the Ming Dynasty, although The DPRK did not explicitly sever its relations with the Ming Dynasty, but greatly alleviated the possible worries of houjin's troops, and at the same time obtained certain material benefits from the Korean tribute.
Since the North Korean side has already been beaten down, why did Chungde first year, Hou Jin attack Korea for the second time? Moreover, it was Huang Taiji himself who personally took command and personally went out on the expedition. Is North Korea plotting else? We'll leave that to the next part.